Supramolecular guided functionalization of neuropeptides

The Center for Medicinal Chemistry brings together scientists at UCPH in a dynamic, collaborative-oriented, integrated research and educational environment across the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, other academic institutions as well as the biotech and pharmaceutical industry.

The Center promotes a working culture where the exploration of conceptual ideas goes hand-in-hand with innovation and attention to circularity and sustainability. In an international landscape, the Center pioneers new strategies and search for solutions to urgent medicinal chemistry challenges in society, and address fundamental questions with long-term perspectives. The Center works to strengthen the Medicon Valley region in an international setting.

PhD project: Supramolecular guided protein functionalization

This is project will explore a strategy selective peptide and protein functionalization relying on selectively molecular recognition of specific regions of native proteins, and subsequently transfer functionality to the protein. The project will be composed of different elements, including these: 1: Supramolecular systems with established selective protein binding properties will be identified, and chemically modified to proof the recognition-functionalization concept. These will be the first systems explored. 2: Identification of new site-selective protein recognition motifs will be pursued using dynamic combinatorial chemistry. The dynamic combinatorial methodology to identify selective receptors has been explored extensively in the Pittelkow research group during the past years.

The project will be a close collaboration with Michael Pittelkow from CHEM, Rasmus Prætorius Clausen from ILF and Thomas Høeg-Jensen from Novo-Nordisk.

Supervisors: Associate Professor Rasmus P. Clausen, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology and Associate Professor Michael Pittelkow, Department of Chemistry.

Start
1 March 2023, or soon thereafter.

Department

Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology is committed to research-based teaching and interdisciplinary research that supports the development and understanding of chemical and pharmacological properties of drugs and drug targets. We work as part of a dynamic academic community of research, education and innovation within the Pharmaceutical Sciences bridging Health Sciences and Life Sciences.

Information about the Department can be found at https://drug.ku.dk/

Job description
Your key tasks as a PhD student at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences are:

• Carrying through an independent research project under supervision
• Completing PhD courses or other equivalent education corresponding to approximately 30 ECTS points
• Participating in active research environments including a stay at another research team, preferably abroad
• Obtaining experience with teaching or other types of dissemination related to your PhD project
• Teaching of undergraduate students in pharmaceutical sciences
• Writing a PhD thesis on the grounds of your project

Key criteria for the assessment of applicants

Applicants must have qualifications corresponding to a master’s degree related to the subject area of the project, e.g. chemistry, medicinal chemistry, chemical engineering or related area. Please note that your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (180 ECTS/3 FTE BSc + 120 ECTS/2 FTE MSc).

Other important criteria are:

• Professional qualifications relevant to the PhD project
• Relevant work experience
• Previous publications
• The grade point average achieved
• Other professional activities
• A curious mind-set with a strong interest in (synthetic) organic chemistry
• Language skills

Place of employment

The place of employment is at the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in dynamic and international research environment. Our research facilities include modern laboratories and analytical facilities, including several NMR spectrometers, UPLC-MS, CD, CPL and ITC.

Terms of employment

The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week.

The position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of 3 years.

The employment is conditioned upon the applicant’s successful enrolment as a PhD student at the Graduate School at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project to the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences.

The PhD study must be completed in accordance with The Ministerial Order on the PhD programme (2013) and the Faculty’s rules on achieving the degree.

The PhD student is expected to be affiliated to the graduate programme in pharmaceutical sciences.

Salary, pension, and terms of employment are in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State. Depending on seniority, the monthly salary starts at approximately 28,400 DKK/roughly 3,800 EUR (October 2022 level) plus pension.

This PhD fellowship at the Faculty of Health and Medicinal Sciences is financed by the Center for Medicinal Chemistry, the Lundbeck Foundation, and the ‘star-program’ from Novo Nordisk.

Application procedure

Your application, in English, must be submitted electronically by clicking “Apply now” below and must include the following documents in PDF format:

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page)

2. CV incl. education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position

3. Certified copy of original Master of Science diploma and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in other language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted. As a prerequisite for a PhD fellowship employment, your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree. We encourage you to read more in the assessment database: https://ufm.dk/en/education/recognition-and-transparency/find-assessments/assessment-database. Please note that we might ask you to obtain an assessment of your education performed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science. Applicants with a Master´s degree from abroad should also enclose a short description of the grading scale used

4. Publication list (if possible)

5. Other information to consider: References and recommendations (if possible)

The deadline for applications is Sunday 1 January 2023, 23.59pm CET

We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process

After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorised recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor.

The assessor makes a non-prioritized assessment of the academic qualifications and experience with respect to the above-mentioned area of research, techniques, skills and other requirements listed in the advertisement.

Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.

The applicant will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

Interviews are expected to be held beginning to mid February 2023.

You can read about the recruitment process at https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/